Andy and Ammon's Excellent Odyssey (ft. JB!)

We're joined by Andy's eldest kid, Vi (they/them), his very own Telemachus, to talk about their favorite Odyssey adaptation, EPIC the Musical by Jorge Rivera-Herrans. Begun as a concept album as a senior college thesis project, it has become a viral fandom on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. We watched a version of the album with accompanying fan animatics and have a lot to say about the art...

(Reuploading because we lost the last episode!) Some podcasts just want to watch the world burn! Ammon's in person reportback of his trip to Greece and views of Lupita Nyong'o's casting. Ammon has never seen The Dark Knight! The Joker as unreliable narrator and relation to Odysseus.

We've washed ashore on the island of the 1997 made for tv miniseries of The Odyssey starring Armand Assante, Bernadette Peters, Vanessa Williams, and Christopher Lee. But first we talk the news out of CinemaCon about Christopher Nolan's film before diving headfirst into very 90s cheesiness. We talk the history of the director, the other shows it was playing against in June of 1997, and tal...

We came here to talk about magic in Nolan's movies and The Odyssey and instead it turned into a broad conversation about life, skepticism, science, and yes magic! We start the show with Michael Caine by Madness, we amble on with magic in The Prestige and in the world of Nolan's other films, especially the Batmans. Do we believe in magic? Is Oppenheimer about magic, too, even though nuclear...

It's Batman vs Wolverine in a battle over magic! Christopher Nolan's The Prestige feels like a thesis statement about how he feels about storytelling and filmmaking, and we brought in our very own David Bowie special guest, Jon Madsen from the Yours Mine & Theirs podcast . We start off with an important correction about anime. And then it takes us basically the length of the movie itse...

The earliest feature length adaptation of The Odyssey is this 1911 silent film created for the Turin World Fair. What do we think of this very straightforward adaptation and what does it say about our expectations for The Odyssey? All this and more-- and next week we're taking on Christopher Nolan's The Prestige !

What makes an Odyssey adaptation an Odyssey adaptation? What baseline elements does it have to have to count as telling the story of The Odyssey? BUT FIRST, we discuss the recent (stupid) "controversy" over the rumored casting of Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Sparta/Troy. Why we think this is actually good casting... but we all thought she was playing Calypso? Andy apologizes to all the...

It's our first of three Batman movies with Nolan at the helm-- 2005's Batman Begins. The history of Batman from comics to tv to film and the background of the 2005 film. A brief history of Frank Miller's "Batman: Year One" and also Allan Moore and the nebulous politics of this movie. We're not surprised about Liam Neeson and Ras al Ghul. We all love Tom Wilkinson. JB'...

Is Contempt really an Odyssey adaptation? Well, not exactly, but Goddard's story of a writer and his wife (Brigitte Bardot!) and Fritz Lang's attempt to film a version of The Odyssey for the most American film producer ever (Jack Palance) is a classic for a reason. We discuss Bardot's complicated legacy, the film and what it says about The Odyssey, and one of Ammon's favorite poets...

We have a ton of news and a holiday discussion, as we tackle the concept of shared universes. We wish you all a happy all the holidays-- the only podcast brave enough to wish everyone io, Saturnalia. Odyssey news: first 5 minutes revealed in theaters, new poster, new trailer. They're... ok. Casting! New announced casting-- and play our casting game along with us! Cinematic universe-- what are...

We're back with another Nolan episode to talk about his 2002 film Insomnia starring Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hillary Swank. We compare it to the original Norwegian film, the addition of the very American subplot about the LAPD and internal affairs and Andy has a lot of cancelable takes on police misconduct! Also do NOT watch the Norwegian version if you don't wat to see Stellan Skars...

The Return the Re-Re-Reupload. Sorry, our files keep getting Zucked by the powers that be. Hopefully this passes muster. And in this episode we discuss The Return with Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus washing up on the shore of Ithaca and having to deal with the parasitic and violent suitors who have taken up residence in his home. Thanks again to Ben for coming along for this boat ride! Did any of you s...

We remind Andy that we DEFINITELY did a Memento episode already as we welcome our first castaway-- Ben! He's here as an expert on Nietzsche (and Foucalt!) AND he has opinions about Christopher Nolan, too! In the episode we delve back into active forgetting and what Nietzsche wrote about the genealogy of morals, the Greek gods, and other issues and how they relate to the ways we think of both M...

It's Christopher Nolan's breakthrough film Memento, in which protagonist Lenny can't create new memories and searches for the elusive John G, who according to a tattoo on his chest raped and murdered his wife. This episode has lots of bits. In this podcast we run through the plot and filmmaking of Memento, Remember Stephen Toblowsky, discuss the origins of some of Christopher Nolan&#39...

It's our first cinematic take on The Odyssey with 1954's "Ulysses" starring Silvana Mangano and Kirk Douglas. We discuss the film but also The Cold War, erotic Soviet tractor movies ( here's some examples ), 1950s crushes, JB finds us a sexy tractor calendar , Dino de Laurentis, and ultimately settle that this is more of a CW/Lifetime version of the epic. Here's the episo...

What exactly is an Epic! We follow Ammon down some of his favorite rabbit holes as we discuss Homer, Hegel, and Hollywood. Also, we start with some Nolan news: it's gonna be ALL IMAX! And the production filming in places "that have never been filmed before"! Next episode we're watching the 1954 Kirk Douglas film Ulysses as our first cinematic take on The Odyssey. It's all in...

An overview of Christopher Nolan, his career, and films. 00:00 Opening Corrections, errata -- shipwrecks? INCLUDING a very special announcement about future guests. A discussion of auteur theory (and its limitations but why we're using it anyway). NOLAN: 24:30 - Intro to Nolan, bio 26:00 - Following 30:15 - Memento 37:10 - Insomnia 40:45 - Batman Begins 50:30 - The Prestige 52:15 - The Dark Knight...

SPOILER ALERT: the first 6 lines of The Odyssey tell us the entire story. We go through the entirety of The Odyssey (so this is the episode to listen to rather than do the reading!) Also why Athena is the best, how to pronounce Telemachus, and SEX CAULDRONS! Andy forgets the stupid, sexy Oppenheimer scientist (it was Josh Hartnett). Next week it's an overview of Nolan and Nolan's filmograp...

Welcome to our campfire, our amphitheater, our place for communal storytelling: it's the beginning of our Excellent Odyssey, during which we'll discuss the Homeric epic and Christopher Nolan's work at adapting it. The podcast is a sort of chimera. Why do we still care about The Odyssey? Why does Nolan choose THIS as his big project? What do we think of Nolan as a filmmaker? In some ways, is he per...